Entitlement

For quite awhile I have always complained about people who seem to be entitled when it comes to the games they played. They are angry because the game isn't exactly what they expected it to be. It is not what they believe the series is about. Games are games and because it isn't what you wanted doesn't make the game bad it means it really isn't what you wanted. Sometimes people fail to see the difference. This brings me directly to the Reader Post for the week written by StriderShinryu, which is basically everything I have ever wanted to say abut the subject put into a few words.

I have been saying the same thing for a while now: a complaint about entitlement usually comes from an entitled person. Be it a publisher that thinks they should have free reign to do whatever consumer unfriendly practice they want, the creator that thinks pleasing fans is the least important part of their job in lieu of pleasing themselves, or any social justice critic that wants everything put under the microscope but their own opinions, they're not any less people out to get everything they want than they think gamers are. 

From there, the attitude can entrench the entitlement because you stop treating people you want to change the opinions of as..well. people, and the angry backlash comes off as dodging the question. Why exactly did you like ME3's ending that I'm missing? Why should we be thrilled by always on DRM? Why is calling Call of Duty a Cancer, and lowering insults at those that play it Okay, but not Flappy Bird? Why are concerns about feminist methodology unfounded?

 Answering questions might reach people. Acting indignant that people don't agree with you, or have different opinions and values, there's no other term but entitled, and you can't hold on to yours while expecting others to let go.

There's nothing wrong with voicing your criticisms and opinions. In fact, fairly often, the "entitled" and the vocal critic have similar complaints, but it's in the delivery and expectation that the critic becomes the "entitled." If you take efforts to actually think about what you're saying, how to say it and what your expectations are, it's pretty easy to make complaints without coming across as an entitled petulant brat. That sort of approach is actually the basis of all professional criticism.

The other issue is expectations, and this ties into a lack of respect for a developers intentions. You are certainly in the right to voice whatever criticisms and complaints you want, but that doesn't mean you are owed a product that exactly matches your unique desires. You are owed a working game that falls in line with what the game was initially promoted to be. That's pretty much it. You can like or not like the final product but it not lining up with exactly what you want doesn't make it broken or bad, and it definitely doesn't make the company that made/published it evil. It just means that you don't like it. A developer can make whatever game they want to make with whatever IP they happen to be working on based on their own decisions and the guidance of their publisher should there be one. Just because there's a name attached to it that you're a fan of doesn't mean they have to make it based exactly on what you want or what that IP was in the past.

In short, be vocal with your complaints if that's what you want to be, but don't be a whiny brat when you do so and don't expect every game out there to be made exactly how you personally want it to be made.

Once again thank you to everyone who submitted a post, and make sure you enjoy your weekend.